Slay the Spire II Review

Mega Crit rebuilds the deckbuilder that defined a genre and then does the harder thing, which is changing it. Five characters climb: the Ironclad, the Silent and the Defect return, joined by the Necrobinder, a lich who fights alongside a detached skeleton hand, and the Regent, whose entire economy runs on a resource of stars. Each act now comes in two versions with their own enemies, events and bosses, so the route knowledge that turned the original into a solved problem for veterans stops transferring.

A timeline of the tower's history unlocks more of it the more you climb. Four players can go up together, each holding a separate deck and health pool while buffing and cursing across the table, and nothing else in the card roguelike field has landed cooperative play at this scale. Reception has been strong and the player numbers are the largest the studio has ever seen.

The overall grade sits a step under that reaction deliberately. This is an early access build, the balance has moved several times since March, and the critics writing about it say plainly that they are reviewing an unfinished tower. Story is barely an axis, since the game frames a climb and then gets out of the way of the cards. Come back when it is done and this grade will very likely move up.